AMBER Rudd is facing calls to resign as Home Secretary after she defied the Prime Minister over Brexit policy by refusing to rule out that Britain could remain under Brussels rule in a customs union with the EU.

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She was refusing to support government policy. You cannot have the third most important member of the government not supporting a fundamental part of government policy.

Peter Bone

And challenged over which side she would back in Wednesday's Commons vote if she were a backbencher, she said: "I'm committed to the Government's position, which to some extent we are still working on."

Later she tried to clarify her comments on Twitter.

She Tweeted: “Thanks to the Press Gallery for hosting me at a challenging yet enjoyable lunch. I should have been clearer - of course when we leave the EU we will be leaving the customs union.

But her clarification provoked further fury with Brexiteers pointing out that she had just described the legal position of leaving the current customs union which happens automatically with Brexit but not supported the Prime Minister’s line of not creating a new customs union.

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Jacob Rees-Mogg condemned Rudd's words

Leading Tory backbencher Peter Bone, founder of the pro-Brexit Grassroots Out campaign group, who was at the lunch led calls for Ms Rudd to leave her senior job in government.

He said: “What she said was quite extraordinary. She was refusing to support government policy. You cannot have the third most important member of the government not supporting a fundamental part of government policy.

“If she meant what she said at the Press Gallery lunch then she should not remain as Home Secretary.”

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the powerful eurosceptic European Reform Group, also insisted that Ms Rudd needs to back government policy.

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Peter Bone also called for Amber Rudd to resign

He said: “Government policy and the promise made in the Conservative manifesto is that we leave the customs union. The Home Secretary is bound by collective responsibility so must support this.”

Gloating Remainer Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, a supporter of the Best for Britain campaign against Brexit, said: "Amber Rudd has let the cat out of the bag.

"The Government at the highest level has no idea what their plan for the customs union really is. They are utterly and completely shambolic.”

Labour's shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, who also wants to keep Britain under Brussels rule, said: "Amber Rudd appears to have let slip that discussions around the Cabinet table about negotiating a customs union with the EU have not in fact concluded.”

Ms Rudd, who has had a difficult week with the Windrush generation scandal, has long been seen as the leading Remainer in the cabinet along with Chancellor Philip Hammond trying to thwart a clean Brexit.

She took the decision to delay the immigration bill which makes it almost impossible to quit the EU without a deal. A Downing Street spokesman said that the Prime Minister “has full confidence” in Ms Rudd.

He insisted that the policy remains that “Britain will leave the [EU’s] customs union and will not join another customs union.”

The row erupted after a debate in the Commons brought by Remainer Labour MP Yvette Cooper called for Britain to stay in the customs union.

The Government decided not to oppose the motion which was passed without opposition but ministers are not bound by the vote and plan to ignore it.